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Our Homeschool Curriculum for 2026-27 (with a Sophomore and a College Student!)

  • Writer: Sarah
    Sarah
  • 19 hours ago
  • 10 min read

This will be my daughter Alina's first year at college and my son Ian's sophomore year in high school! I'll be homeschooling Ian solo now šŸ˜² and focusing on Algebra, SAT Prep, Homeopathic Medicine, World History, the Constitution, independent studies, and his passionate interest in cars and robotics. Alina will be attending college part-time, taking Latin, writing, and math alongside her independent studies and working part-time. They will both continue in my Liberty Scholars program, too.


This post details our curriculum and resources for the 2026-2027 school year. Scroll below to see what we're using for:

  • Character

  • Life skills: household responsibilities, home and vehicle maintenance, and cooking

  • Individual interests

  • Academics: reading, writing, math, history, science, foreign language, and current events




Character Comes First

Education is much more than academic learning; it involves our emotional and spiritual development as well. I believe that teaching my teens to be honest, responsible, kind people is more important than the acquisition of academic knowledge.


I messed up on this in the early years of our homeschooling by focusing too much on academics. Through painful experience, I was re-oriented and realized that character development has to be paramount over everything else we do in our homeschool.


I intentionally focus on character development through:

  • Relationship development

  • Household responsibilities

  • Discussion of character related to personal experiences as well as books and movies we share

  • Service within our community


Life Skills

When my kids were younger, I focused on teaching them life skills that we worked on together. Now that they're older, my kids are learning independent life skills to ensure that they'll be ready for life on their own.



Household Responsibilities

Both of my kids have a fairly large list of household responsibilities, which they have been taught and are expected to complete on their own. They are working to master all aspects of home care, including laundry, cleaning, maintenance, yard care, etc.


Since my kids are in high school/college now, they each have stewardship over specific areas of our daily home tasks. Currently, Alina is responsible for unloading the dishwasher and washing the family's breakfast dishes daily. Ian is responsible for doing all the family laundry, mowing/trimming our back yard, and cleaning up dog waste. We also all divide up weekly house cleaning tasks, which are usually accomplished on Sunday mornings.


Household Shopping and Errands

Both Alina and Ian drive independently now, so they drive themselves to their classes and other activities. This allows me to task them with running household errands now, too!


They are often tasked with grocery shopping and errands such as going to the gas station, returning books to the library, dropping off donations at charities, going to the post office, etc. In this way, they are learning the skills they will need to be householders.



Cooking

Alina and Ian each cook dinner for the family once a week. They choose the menu for their assigned dinner days. They have mastered many simple recipes (spaghetti, burgers, pizza, etc.) and I still help out when they want to learn new recipes.


Some favorite recipes that my teens return to frequently are:


Individual Needs and Interests

The homeschool philosophy we love is Thomas Jefferson Education. In this homeschool model, rather than being in specific grades, children and youths are in ā€œPhasesā€ which each have a specific learning focus. There is more info about the Phases here, and in brief, they are:

  • Core Phase ā€“ Age ~0-8 years old ā€“ Focused on character development, right and wrong, good and bad, etc.

  • Love of Learning Phase ā€“ Age ~8-13 years old ā€“ Giving children the opportunity to fall in love with learning through nurturing their own interests and providing opportunities for exploration of academic subjects

  • Scholar Phase ā€“ Age ~13-18 years old ā€“ Focused on study in a wide range of topics with increasing ability and commitment

  • Depth Phase - Age ~18-24 years old - Focused on greater depth in areas of strength and passion, preparing for life mission, filling in educational gaps


Since Ian is in Scholar Phase and Alina is moving into Depth Phase, they each have independent studies in conjunction with a Scholar/Depth Contract (which is re-negotiated each semester). There is more info about how we implement self-directed studies here.


An important part of continuing to nurture a love of learning is through encouraging youths to pursue their own interests. My kids are pursuing their own interests as follows.



Egg Business

My kids are partners in a small chicken egg business. They work together to take care of the chickens daily and sell a few dozen eggs weekly (besides the 2-3 dozen our family consumes).


Owning their own business has given my kids the opportunity to learn much about raising and caring for animals, handling and saving money, profit vs. loss, the value of hard work, perseverance, and long-term commitments. They've become experts in management of the flock, and they make the hard decisions about keeping their business viable throughout the productive and unproductive egg laying years of their hens.


19-year-old daughter Alina ā€“ Depth Phase + College Classes + Working + Writing

Since Alina has graduated from high school and is moving into Depth Phase, we will be figuring out how she can be even more independent with her studies, yet still have accountability towards meeting her goals.


Alina is not planning to attend college full-time right now, for a variety of reasons,

but her study workload will still be quite full overall. She will have the following classes and activities in Fall 2026:


Alina will also continue working part-time at a local flower shop, where she is learning about serving customers, order management, what it takes for a business to be successful, and (hopefully soon) floral design.


Additionally, Alina loves books and aims to be a fantasy author someday. We support this interest by:

  • Making sure Alina has uninterrupted time when she can read and write,

  • Frequently discussing books with her, and

  • Supporting her participation in online writing workshops and competitions.


16-year-old son Ian ā€“ Scholar Phase + Robotics + Cars Cars Cars

Since Ian is in Scholar Phase, besides our all-together school time, he also has independent studies and will be working towards his goal to take the SAT in spring 2027. (We originally planned for Ian to take the SAT in 2026, but decided to push it off a year so he has more time to prepare.) Taking the SAT will allow Ian to potentially take Dual Credit classes at the university the following school year.


Ian will have the following classes and activities in Fall 2026:


Ian is continuing to work a few hours weekly for the Raw Milk Institute. He is responsible for handling monthly test data submissions from farmers across the country and internationally.Ā Through this work, he is gaining proficiency in using Microsoft Excel, writing professional email communications, website editing, etc.


Ian has had a lifelong passionate interest in cars and other machines. We support these interests through:

  • Continuing to teach Ian how to perform routine maintenance and repairs on our cars and 4-wheelers, such as changing spark plugs, changing oil and transmission fluid, changing coolant, changing batteries, servicing carburetors, brake work, etc. (My own car maintenance days are long past šŸ˜Ž, but my husband Ryan and Ian spend many Saturdays working on our vehicles.šŸ˜)

  • Investing in a pressure washer, foam cannon, and detailing equipment, which Ian and his Ryan use for washing cars,

  • Giving Ian home maintenance jobs that involve power tools such as sanding the picnic table, repairing the chicken coop, clearing brush piles, chopping wood, etc., and

  • Encouraging Ian to initiate his own mechanical and repair projects.


Academics

Now that Alina has graduated, our all-together school time will have just me and IanšŸ˜³! What a big change this will be.


We will have all-together school time for ~2-3 hours, ~3 days per week, working around Ian's class schedule and independent study time.


If you want to know more about what our daily and weekly high school homeschool routine looks like, go here: Our High School Homeschool Routine (with Self-Directed Teens)


Liberty Scholars Program

Both Alina and Ian will be continuing in my Liberty Scholars program. In this program, my goal is to help young adults be prepared for adulthood and leadership, with a solid foundation in US constitutional principles.


Overall, this is what the program looks like:

  • Reading two classic books per month (generally one non-fiction and one novel)

  • Participating in online discussions about our readings in a private email discussion forum

  • Attending in-person book clubs twice a month

  • Team-building enrichment activities such as shared meals, hikes, field trips, and movies


Here's our reading and activity list for the Fall 2026 semester:

History, government, and justice:


Classics:

  • The Chosen book by Chaim Potok

  • Mansfield ParkĀ book by Jane Austen + Mansfield Park movieĀ (2007)

  • Julius CaesarĀ play by Shakespeare + script reading + Julius CaesarĀ movie (1953)

  • Little WomenĀ book by Louisa Mae Alcott

  • Composition presentations

    • Students will present their re-writing of a passage from one our readings

    • Students will provide written peer feedback to other presenters


Personal development:


Field trips and enrichment:

  • Car oil change demonstration

  • Southern NM state fair

  • City of Rocks exploration

  • Caballo Lake

  • Additional hikes TBD


Literature

Literature is foundational to our homeschool. It gives us exposure to different cultures and values, allows us to "walk a mile" in others' shoes, and facilitates important discussions that lead to character growth.

Even though my kids are young adults, we still read aloud classic books frequently. Read alouds spark many of our most important discussions about culture and character. Since my kids are older now, we take turns reading aloud to the family in the evenings; this is helping my kids learn public speaking and how to project their voices. Additionally, Alina and I are co-leading a book club for younger teens at our homeschool group.


Our recent and upcoming reads include:


Additionally, as a family we will be reading The Odyssey as a read aloud book, alongside taking Hillsdale College's new Odyssey course.


Writing, Spelling, and Typing

Some of the current ways in which we engage in writing, spelling, and typing are:

  • McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling book (which includes spelling words for K-12+), along with composition practice using the spelling words

  • Writing assignments (such as essays, presentations, etc), negotiated during accountability meetings for Ian's independent studies

  • Spelling bees, once a semester as part of our homeschool group

  • Email accounts for work, friend, and family communications

  • Spelling games such as Quiddler and Scrabble


Math

Some of the resources we're using for math this year are:

  • Saxon Algebra 1, for both Ian and myself. It will be new for him, but a good review for me since it's been awhile. šŸ¤£

  • Individual bank accounts and personal money management

  • Managing finances for chicken egg business, including tracking profits vs losses, purchasing feed and supplies, etc


History

Each semester, we alternate between focusing on science or history. This reduces the stress of trying to fit it all in and allows us to dig deeper into specific topics.


We use the following a 4-year-cycle for history:


We have completed two iterations of this four-year cycle, gaining more complexity and nuance each time.


Last year, we started working through our third iteration of 1850-modern world history with Dave Raymond's Modernity World History curriculum. We made it through about half of the lessons, so we will continue with this once we are done with our Homeopathic Medicine unit.


I love how the Modernity curriculum takes us deeper through excellent video lectures, reading original source documents, and writing assignments that hone critical thinking skills.


I'll be taking this class right alongside Ian, so that we can discuss everything for deeper learning. This curriculum has a strong Christian viewpoint, which is giving us much to discuss since we're not Christians. It is fascinating to see how much Christianity has underpinned so much of our modern civilization.



Science

In the past, we used a 4-year cycle for Science:


We completed the third iteration of this science rotation with Conceptual Physics last year. Rather than returning to Year 1 again, Ian requested that we instead do a unit on homeopathic medicine. This initially caught me off-guard, but given that I've been a homeopathic practitioner for 10+ years, I will of course be very happy to share my passion with him!


So, I am now designing a semester-long unit study on homeopathic medicine, with the end goal of Ian being ready to practice treating first-aid conditions and acute illnesses. We will use many books from my extensive library of homeopathic texts, including (but not limited to) the following:


Spanish and Latin

Ian and I will continue working on learning Spanish together with the following:


Alina will be studying Latin in a small group setting. The local university does not offer Latin, so I found a Latin tutor for her. They will be studying Latin using:



Current Events

1-3 times per week as part of our morning homeschool block, we watch The World from A to Z with Carl Azuz. This is a short current events show; the episodes are 9-minutes long, perfect for adding into our routine. This gives us many opportunities to have discussions about complex issues in the USA and around the world.


What changes have you made to your homeschool for the coming year?


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